Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0851184 (thinning)
 11,252 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This study describes the prevalence rate of overweight and thinness in a population of teens living in two different areas of Italy and explores the body self-image perception and unhealthy eating behaviours and strategies to lose weight. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 2,121 teenage students (1,084 males, 1,037 females). Results showed that teen females and males build and perceive their body images in very different ways. Most of the overall sample perceived their weight as normal, while a relevant 31.6% defined themselves as overweight and another 4.4% as heavily overweight. Analysis based on BMI (calculated through self-referred weight and height) showed that only 9.2% of our sample could be considered overweight and 1.7% obese. Most of female teen students (485 out of 1,037) were trying to lose weight, demonstrating that strategies to lose weight were undertaken also by girls perceiving themselves as normal in relation to body weight. 46.8% girls were using strategies to lose weight compared with 21.9% boys. These strategies included very problematic behaviours like self-induced vomiting (3.3% F vs 1.7% M) and dieting pills (2.8% F vs 1.5% M) undertaken along with more usual thinning strategies like dieting and exercising. Girls were more prone than boys to exercise as a way to lose weight (41% vs 31.7%). This study showed that there is a deep gap between actual weight and perceived body-image and weight. This study is one of the first of this kind in Italy and calls for primary prevention and health education programs aimed at improving teen body-image as a strategy to reduce the eating disorder epidemics spreading among young people.
 ...
PMID:Overweight, thinness, body self-image and eating strategies of 2,121 Italian teenagers. 1622 36

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and extreme weight loss. Pseudoatrophic brain changes are often readily visible in individual brain scans, and AN may be a valuable model disorder to study structural neuroplasticity. Structural magnetic resonance imaging studies have found reduced gray matter volume and cortical thinning in acutely underweight patients to normalize following successful treatment. However, some well-controlled studies have found regionally greater gray matter and persistence of structural alterations following long-term recovery. Findings from diffusion tensor imaging studies of white matter integrity and connectivity are also inconsistent. Furthermore, despite the severity of AN, the number of existing structural neuroimaging studies is still relatively low, and our knowledge of the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms for macrostructural brain changes is rudimentary. We critically review the current state of structural neuroimaging in AN and discuss the potential neurobiological basis of structural brain alterations in the disorder, highlighting impediments to progress, recent developments, and promising future directions. In particular, we argue for the utility of more standardized data collection, adopting a connectomics approach to understanding brain network architecture, employing advanced magnetic resonance imaging methods that quantify biomarkers of brain tissue microstructure, integrating data from multiple imaging modalities, strategic longitudinal observation during weight restoration, and large-scale data pooling. Our overarching objective is to motivate carefully controlled research of brain structure in eating disorders, which will ultimately help predict therapeutic response and improve treatment.
 ...
PMID:Structural Neuroimaging of Anorexia Nervosa: Future Directions in the Quest for Mechanisms Underlying Dynamic Alterations. 2896 86

Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a psychiatric illness defined by preoccupation with body image (cognitive 'symptoms'), binge eating and compensatory behaviors. Although diagnosed BN has been related to grey matter alterations, characterization of brain structure in women with a range of BN symptoms has not been made. This study examined whether cortical thickness (CT) values scaled with severity of BN cognitions in 33 women with variable BN pathology. We then assessed global structural connectivity (SC) of CT to determine if individual differences in global SC relate to BN symptom severity. We used the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) as a continuous measure of BN symptom severity. EDE-Q score was negatively related to global CT and local CT in the left middle frontal gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and temporoparietal regions. Moreover, cortical thinning was most pronounced in regions with high global connectivity. Finally, individual contributions to global SC at the group level related to EDE-Q score, where increased EDE-Q score correlated with reduced connectivity of the left OFC and middle temporal cortex and increased connectivity of the right superior parietal lobule. Findings represent the first evidence of cortical thinning that relates to cognitive BN symptoms.
 ...
PMID:Associations between cortical thickness, structural connectivity and severity of dimensional bulimia nervosa symptomatology. 2915 Jan 36

Background: Eating disorders (EDs) are serious and life-threatening mental diseases characterized by abnormal or altered eating habits. The prevalence is variable, being influenced by diverse sociocultural factors. Historically, the prevalence of EDs has been higher in women (90%), although the incidence of these disorders in men appears to be increasing. In daily medical practice, when considering the presentation of other medical complications associated to the development of an ED, few is known about its real prevalence in men. Among them, some severe gastrointestinal complications that are rarely presented, such as the superior mesenteric artery syndrome (SMAS), can produce life-threatening results. Despite that, very few cases of men presenting this pathology are reported in literature. Case Presentation: A 38-year-old man without a history of psychiatric disease was admitted to the emergency department with nausea, abdominal pain, and severe malnutrition (body mass index 15.7 kg/m2). He was diagnosed with SMAS and was studied by multiple specialists on suspicion of a probable organic origin of his thinning. The suspected diagnosis of ED was rejected for months by some professionals, as well as by the patient and his family, until it was finally diagnosed with unspecified feeding and eating disorder (USFED). Conclusion: This case represents an example of diagnostic challenge where a delayed diagnosis of an ED in a male patient was made probably due to gender bias in clinical research and practice. In the literature, numerous reports were described in women diagnosed with SMAS with a previous diagnosis of an ED; however, few cases were found in men. In this clinical case, the patient suffered a significant diagnostic delay, probably due to the lack of diagnostic suspicion given by the differences in the prevalence and clinical presentation of EDs in women and men.
 ...
PMID:Delayed Diagnosis of an Eating Disorder in a Male Patient With Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome: Results From a Case Study. 3168 Oct 41